Into the imagination

Kristen Schaal delivers beautifully elliptical flights of fancy
5 April 2012

Thinking back over her actual words and actions, there's nothing about Kristen Schaal's hour-long show to suggest she's not irretrievably insane. Yet when, say, 50 minutes in we find the Brooklyn comic sitting on the floor acting out a tragic love triangle between a pot, a spoon and a lid, we've been led so deep into the woods that it all seems perfectly reasonable.

On another occasion, Schaal adopts a terrible cockney accent and enacts scene one of her epic play Anne Boleyn On Fire.

The blend of quirky looks, squeaky little-girl voice and wanton surrealism could come across as nothing more than a solo reprise of the crazed fan character that she does for the HBO TV show by former Perrier nominees Flight Of The Conchords. Instead, there's utter conviction invested into her dark, beautifully elliptical flights of fancy.

The show is not so much a set of jokes as a gradual descent into the boundless wilds of Schaal's imagination.

Until Mon, Assembly@George Street,

8.45pm, £9.50 to £11.50.

Edinburgh Festival, Kristen Schaal
Assembly @ George Street

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